100 Shades of Gray

Thiel, Trump, YCombinator, Facebook

(I no longer agree with the implications in this post. Read https://medium.com/@paulbiggar/why-would-facebook-fire-peter-thiel-bc389d5631d1 instead)

• Some people believe that Trump is a misogynist.
• Some people believe that Trump is racist.
• Some people believe that Trump is xenophobic.

• Some people believe the US is being torn into extreme factions.
• Some people vote based on a candidate’s political opinions, and not on their actions.
• Some people vote based on a candidate’s actions, and not on their political opinions.
• Some people believe the US’s inability to go in one direction will lead to the US no longer being a world leader.
• Some people believe that the Supreme Court nominee is a bigger issue than the actual candidate.

• Peter Thiel gave a lot of money to Donald Trump.
• Some people use the word “surrogate” to describe Thiel’s relationship with Trump.
• Some people believe that Thiel’s donation to Trump is so repugnant that they would like to not be involved with him.
• Some people believe that Thiel’s donation doesn’t represent political support, but rather a direct action against marginalized people.
• Some people believe that organizations with a relationship to Thiel should disassociate from him.
• Some people believe this is a political witch hunt or a new form of McCarthyism.

• Some people are born with an ambiguous sex.
• Some people believe that a person’s gender is the sex that they are born with.
• Some people believe that a person’s gender is what they decide it to be.
• Some people believe that gay rights in the US will cause the Apocalypse.
• Some people believe that abortion is the destruction of cells which are not yet a human being.
• Some people believe that abortion is murdering babies.

• Thiel has offered statements that some people believe are anti-immigrant, racist, and against women’s rights.
• Thiel is the first openly gay person to address the Republican National Convention.
• Thiel funded a lawsuit which destroyed Gawker, which had previously outed Thiel.
• Thiel has said “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible”.

• Thiel is on Facebook’s board.
• Facebook has 1.7B users, from all over the political spectrum.
• Some people believe that Facebook is engaged in a conspiracy to suppress right-wing political positions.

• Condoleezza Rice is on Dropbox’s board.
• Some people believe that Rice is a war criminal.
• Some people believe that Dropbox should not associate with Rice because she is a war criminal.

• Facebook has many employees, including women and people of color (POC).
• Some people believe inclusivity of women and POC is important in the tech community.
• Some people believe that tech, in general, is not as inclusive of women and POC as it might be.
• Some people believe that Thiel’s presence on the Facebook board reduces Facebook’s ability and willingness to hire women and POC.
• Some people believe that Facebook should not associate with Thiel.
• Some people believe that inclusivity of those who support Trump is at odds with inclusivity of women and POC.
• Some people believe that Thiel’s donation represents freedom of speech.
• Some people believe that Thiel’s donation represents hate speech.
• Some people believe that Thiel’s donation itself is a hateful action.

• Some people believe that it is bad to have a workplace where some people would not want to work.
• Some people believe that making people feel uncomfortable at work should be a firing offense.
• Some people believe that it is OK to fire people for their political opinions.
• Some people believe that it is OK to fire people for the implications of their political opinions.
• Some people believe that freedom of speech should allow people to say anything, including unpleasant speech.
• Some people believe that supporting Trump is not just freedom of speech, but is supporting hate speech, and is therefore hateful in itself.
• Some people believe that hate speech should not be allowed.
• Some people’s hate speech is other people’s free speech.

• Some people believe that we should not disassociate with people, regardless of the beliefs they hold.
• Some people believe that we should disassociate from some people, if their beliefs merit it.
• Different groups of people hold different standards for what merits disassociation.
• Some people believe that inclusivity of those with dissenting and offensive positions is important in a community.
• Some people make threats online to rape and murder people.

• Some people believe that Clinton is hiding major crimes in her emails.
• Some people believe that Clinton caused US personnel to die in the Benghazi attacks.
• The FBI declined to prosecute Clinton in regards to her email server.
• Some people believe that Clinton’s political influence allowed her to avoid prosecution in regards to her email server.
• Some people believe that Russia is hacking the US election to support Trump.
• Some people believe that Trump advocated sexual assault.
• Some people do not make a moral distinction between sex and sexual assault.
• Trump has been accused of sexual assault by multiple women.
• Trump has not been charged with or indicted of sexual assault.
• Clinton has described some Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables”.
• Clinton has apologized.
• Some people believe that Clinton’s actions are worse than Trump’s.
• Some people believe that Trump’s actions are worse than Clinton’s.

• Thiel has some sort of relationship to YCombinator (YC), referred to as “part-timer partner”.
• YC is extremely influential in tech startups and startup culture.
• Thiel does not have any carry in the YC fund.
• Some people are asking YC to terminate their relationship with Thiel.
• YC internally refer to this as “firing” Thiel.
• Some people do not agree with the term “firing”, and believe the relationship to be closer to a business or marketing deal, and not an employee relationship.
• Paul Graham, who founded YC, gave a lot of money to Clinton.
• Sam Altman, who runs YC, has donated a lot of money to defeat Trump.
• Altman says “we should talk to people more, not less”.
• Altman has repeatedly stated that he is a Clinton supporter and urged people to vote for her.
• Altman has refused to disassociate with Thiel.
• Altman believes that “polarization of the country into two parallel political realities is not good for any of us.”

• Some people believe that alleviating poverty is important, and that the best way to achieve that is by stimulating innovation.
• Some people believe that lowering tax on the rich would help innovation, and transitively would reduce poverty.
• Some people on the right and left agree on the problems facing the US, but have radically different ideas of how to solve them.
• Some people simultaneously believe in Republican causes and Democratic causes.
• Some people are voting for the candidate that would appoint a Supreme Court justice that they agree with, and not for the candidate themselves.
• Some people are voting to burn the whole thing down.
• Some people are racists and misogynists.
• Some people actually are deplorable.
• Some deplorable people, statistically speaking, will vote for Trump.
• Some deplorable people, statistically speaking, will vote for Clinton.

• Some people hold two contradictory beliefs at the same time.
• Sometimes, two people experience the same thing and have different beliefs about it.
• Some people believe that Trump is bad, while simultaneously believing that Trump supporters are not necessarily bad.
• Some people believe that Clinton is bad, while simultaneously believing that Clinton supporters are not necessarily bad.
• Some people believe that Trump is so bad that Trump supporters must themselves be bad.
• Some people believe that Clinton is so bad that Clinton supporters must themselves be bad.
• Some Trump supporters are bad people.
• Some Clinton supporters are bad people.
• Some Clinton supporters are good people.
• Some Trump supporters are good people.

• People are incredibly complex beings, with a rich tapestry of emotions, thought processes, life experiences, opinions and actions.
• Some people believe that the world is black and white.
• Some people believe that the world is made up of shades of gray.